Wednesday, October 26, Flying Home

The trip back to Virginia worked like charm. After a decent night's sleep we both awakened before the alarm went off and had plenty of time to slowly assemble our things and trundle it all down to the car. Since I had seen the traffic patterns around Terminal C and the rental car return on the previous day, it was much easier for me to drive in and drop off the car right when they opened at 7 a.m. Having wheels on all our suitcases allowed us to walk from the rental car return directly over to the terminal entrance, and we were in line at the ticket counter early enough that we had time for a nice breakfast before heading off to our departure gate.

As usual, when they opened the gate for boarding Monika was standing first in line while I, as usual, was hanging back a bit because I was squeezed out by pushier people. But since the first 3 people were selected for a thorough search of their carry-on luggage and a pat-down inspection, Monika was stopped for that while I, being number 5 or 6, went breezing on by. This took me by complete surprise because I'm the one whose raffish appearance and offbeat behavior normally excites the interest of police and security people, while Monika has a much more normal, innocent, motherly appearance. I was put on a shuttle bus somewhat like Dulles airport's mobile lounges to get to our airplane, and I must admit I was getting a little nervous when Monika didn't appear for the next 10 minutes or so. What do you do if your spouse is stopped for a strip search while you are being bussed out to the airplane? What happens if you insist on being taken back to the gate to wait for her? How would "Miss Manners" handle the etiquette of this delicate situation? Is it "every man/woman for himself or herself?" or is there a polite way of couples staying together despite these random security checks on one partner or the other? If anyone has the answer to this dilemma, please let me know.

I was relieved when Monika finally appeared and we both could board the airplane for the flight home. Once again, we had wonderful meals on our Air France flight, and this time there were no caterwauling babies to jangle our nerves. There was, in fact, a family with 5 children ages 2 to 10 right in front of us as well as other children in our section of the cabin, but they were all as good as gold. For young children to behave well for an 8-hour flight in a confined space is, in my book, more than you can really expect, but sometimes it happens. The Air France cabin staff was also very polite and helpful (where does Air France get all those Audrey Hepburn look-alikes for stewardesses?), which is crucial for a pleasant flight.

But some of the tiny things about our service also had a surprising effect on how much we enjoyed the journey despite the fact that we were, as usual, in Economy Class, the modern version of steerage on the old immigrant ships. They gave out fresh baked French rolls with the main meal, for example, and those were quite good, just like what we had been eating at breakfast during the past week. Of course, we could have complimentary wine with our meals, but in addition they also served cognac with the after meal coffee. Now that is living (at least in Monika's book; I thought it tasted awful!). The eating utensils were metal with white plastic handles and felt quite solid and easy to use. Last but not least, they told us we could come back to the galley and help ourselves to whatever beverages we liked at any time between meal services. The most we've been offered on other air lines is maybe some water, but they had a full tray of orange and tomato juices, three kinds of Coca Cola, bottled water, and some kind of soda water like Schweppes. Monika took advantage of that and had a couple of glasses of orange juice during the flight back. These are all small things, like I said, but they somehow indicate whether an airline is really trying to please and accommodate its Economy Class passengers rather than herding them in and out like so many cattle, and it did make a difference to us.

We arrived at 12:40 p.m. Washington time (6:40 p.m. by our body clocks), and that was great because we could easily get a cab and get home by early afternoon. After turning on the water and electricity, we drove out to shop for basic perishable foodstuffs and then had a snack. To finish off the afternoon, I completed the trip journal while Monika added the information she had received from Christoph into her family tree program. We were tired, but we managed to stay awake until the evening news, which as usual was depressing but informative, and then turned in for the evening at 7 p.m. After sleeping the clock around, we were in surprisingly good shape the following morning to make doctor's appointments, call folks, pick up the mail, and in general continue on with our home life pretty much where we had left off a couple of weeks back.